US capital's arbor ardor unabated despite outage outrage

July 03, 2012|Reuters

* DC's love of trees started with Washington, Jefferson

* City has plans to increase canopy coverage

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, July 3 (Reuters) - Power utilities andregulators alike blame downed trees as the main culprit forpower outages across the U.S. capital region this week, but thearea's love affair with a green canopy shows no signs ofabating.

Nearly a million people in the Washington area remainedwithout power and baked in searing heat on Tuesday after a briefbut violent windstorm known as a "derecho" hit the region Fridaynight.

Washington has a long history of tree lovers. It includesformer presidents such as George Washington, despite thelegendary story about him chopping down a cherry tree, andThomas Jefferson, who ordered poplars planted on PennsylvaniaAvenue between the Capitol Building and the White House.

Arboreal fervor went into overdrive in the 1870s whenAlexander "Boss" Shepherd, who served as Washington's leader,ordered the planting of 60,000 trees.

These days even as extreme storms in both summer and winterknock down trees contributing to power outages that last severaldays, residents say keeping large trees is a price worth paying.

Allen Ross, a photographer who lives in Silver Spring,Maryland, said he's willing to live with large trees even thoughhe's experienced lengthy storm-related power outages at leastonce a year since moving to his house in 2008. This timestifling heat from the lack of air-conditioning forced him tocancel an open house to show his home, which is for sale.

"We do have a pretty spectacular urban suburban canopy,"said Ross, who hopes to move to another leafy community nearby."It's the sacrifice that we have to make for having such a greatcanopy. I'm willing to live with the trees even if they knockpower out, which they do."

TREES TAKE THE FALL FOR POWER WOES

Trees are certainly not the only cause of power outages andthey are not the only reason why it takes the region so long toget power restored. After winter storms in 2010 caused outages,regulators ordered utility Pepco to strengthen its gridand undertake other changes expected to head off lengthy futureoutages.

Regulators will study the causes of this outage. But PaulaCarmody, who represents consumers as the People's Counsel forMaryland, said utilities have long tried to make trees take thefall for the power woes. "The utility companies try to blame thevictim and that just doesn't work."

In fact, Washington's percentage of trees is averagecompared to other cities, said Mark Buscaino, the executivedirector of Casey Trees, a non-profit group that restores andprotects trees in the capital. Washington has canopy coverage of35 percent, while Boston has 30 percent and Pittsburgh has 42,he said.

Still, Montgomery County in Maryland, Arlington County inVirginia and the capital city are all members of Tree City USA,which requires them to establish tree boards or departments runby professional foresters or aborists. That not only shows theregion's passion for trees, but the interest has also sparkedvigorous debates about the extent to which trees should be cutback from power lines.

If trees are a risk to power reliability, one solution couldbe to bury power lines. But that can cost $3 million to $12million per mile, said Marcus Beal, a spokesman for Pepco. Hesaid the company is considering burying lines in communitiesthat have had the most problems with trees.

The costs of burying lines would be passed on to residentsand businesses that pay the power bills, consumer groups said.

The debate about trees and power outages is sure to growlouder. Washington's Mayor Vincent Gray this year set a goal ofexpanding the city's canopy to 40 percent from 35 percent.